By Kassondra Granata

Senator Eric Bergenn is the only presidential candidate in this month’s Student Government Association election and he isn’t too thrilled about it.

“To be honest, I was really looking forward to running against somebody,” said Bergenn. “I put a lot of work into the idea of campaigning. It’s a little disappointing.”

Bergenn ran for the position of interim president in February after former President Matt Vekakis resigned, but lost the special election to Jamie Canny.

“During the nomination of interim president back in February, I put it out back there and it was already a goal of mine.” Bergenn said of his decision to run.

Bergenn is disappointed that no one stepped up to take him on in the 2011 presidential race.

“Although I do have a lot of support, no one is going to feel like they got their guy in there verses the other guy,” Bergenn said. “I was looking forward to running a race because I had a lot more faith that I would be the favorite in the election by the entire student body.”

Bergenn, who has always enjoyed being influenced by members of the student body, is currently the chair of the Student Life Committee. It’s the committee’s job to go out and obtain feedback from the student body and make sure that SGA acts accordingly to their wishes.

“I heard a lot of complaints about SGA being closed and no one knows what they do,” Bergenn said. “I’ve even heard responses to the questions ‘What does SGA do?’ and the answer was ‘I don’t know, take my money and do whatever they want with it.’”

This discouraged Bergenn and helped him in setting his goals of what he wants to achieve as president.

“I feel like we need to be a lot more open to campus and people need to feel that the senate and SGA belongs to them, because it does,” said Bergenn.

Bergenn says that the SGA is currently doing a great job in keeping the students in mind and representing the student body.

“We’re really focused on what needs to be changed around the campus and representing the students on a bigger level while trying to enable all the different clubs to be able to do whatever they want as long as it’s in the guidelines of the school policy,” said Bergenn.

What Bergenn would like to see is better collaboration between the SGA and groups on campus such as the Central Activities Network, the Inter-Residence Council and the Student Union Board of Governors.

“I think that more collaboration with these other organizations could potentially provide more benefit to the campus community,” said Bergenn. “This collaboration could also create a better network of student leaders on campus that could lead to a stronger student voice on campus, and in turn a stronger campus community with more CCSU pride.”

Bergenn said it will be key to get more students interested and involved with the student government for change to happen and that a motivated SGA can achieve that.

“If we get a group of people who are more enthusiastic about it then we’ll have more people running for positions meaning more competition, meaning better campaigners in positions,” said Bergenn. “Competitions lead to good things. It’s all about tradition, that’s where it starts.”

Elections for president, vice president, treasurer and the rest of the senate will be held on April 19 and 20 in the student center lobby and online.